In an image filing method and an image filing apparatus based on the conventional technology, when a document is registered as an image file, a user inputs a title, a key word, or the like in the image file to be registered, and when a registered image file is retrieved, a user specifies a title of or a keyword for a desired image file to retrieve and have the image file outputted using the title or the keyword as a key for retrieval.
In the image filing method and an image filing apparatus based on the conventional technology as described above, although it is possible to retrieve a particular image file from a plurality of registered image files by specifying a title or a keyword, when an image file is registered, each user inputs a title or a keyword in a way specific to each user, so that, when another user tries to retrieve any image file, if the title or keyword as a key for retrieval of a desired image file are unknown to the user, the user can not retrieve the desired image file.
Also when an image file is registered, it is necessary to input a unique and easy-to-understand title or keyword, the work is disadvantageously complicated.
Further, as each user inputs a title or a keyword in a way specific to the user, sometimes the same title or same keyword may be assigned to a plurality of image files, so that, in some cases, it is very difficult to retrieve a desired image file within a short period of time, which is disadvantageous.